Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a Public Lecture on

"The Challenges of Engendering History"

Kumkum Roy
Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Date & Time: Saturday, 27th December 2008, 2.00 p.m

Abstract

The talk will focus on issues of feminist theory, women's studies and history, exploring the process of knowledge formation with special reference to the early historical tradition

Session 18: Is knowledge production by natural scientists influenced by their political leanings and their world-view?

Raghavendra Gadagkar
(Professor and JC Bose National Fellow, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science & Chairman, Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc, Bangalore) 

[No specific reading is required before the lecture. Readings will be suggested during the lecture]

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 20th December, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 17:Knowledge Production in Archaeology through Ethnography and Theory

Shereen Ratnagar
Retd. Professor of Archaeology, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Day, Date & Time: Thursday, 11th December, 2008, 4:00 p.m.

Session 16: What do we ‘Know' in Literary Studies

Tejaswini Niranjana
Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore

What do we 'know in literary studies:
This session will look at the history of the act of interpretation in literary studies
(a) with a view to tracking what was sought to be ‘known’ and
(b) to understand how the term ‘literature’ itself has been contested.

Suggested readings

1. Jacques Derrida, Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences. In A Postmodern Reader. 1993. Eds. Joseph Natoli and Linda Hutcheon. State University of New York Press.
   
   
2. Susie Tharu, Government, Binding and Unbinding: Alienation and the Subject of Literature. In Subject to Change: Teaching Literature in the Nineties. 1998. Ed. Susie Tharu. Orient Longman Limited.
   
   

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 29th November, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 15(A): Scientific method and the objectivity question

by

Prof. Shefali Moitra,
Retd. Professor, Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University
Formerly Director, School of Womens Studies, Jadavpur University

Scientific method and the objectivity question: Modern European science owes allegiance to objectivity at two levels: at the level of data collection and at the level of theory construction.

Objectivity does not carry the same sense at both levels. At the object level there is the problem of under-determination. At the theoretical level there is the problem of proving a proof. Absence of objectivity is inversely related to the presence of subjectivity. Subjectivity could be located in an individual, in a group in an institution or in theory itself. This session looks at the ways in which feminists have identified three levels of subjectivity in scientific method and scientific practice: (a) at the level of hypothesis formation, (b) at the level of hypothesis testing, (c) at the level of application

Session 15(B): Everyday insults, seductions and challenges in the contemporary structuring of gender and childhood relations: some implications for feminist antiracist analysis

by

Prof. Erica Burman,
Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and
Chair of the Psychology of Women Section of the British Psychological Society

Everyday insults, seductions and challenges in the contemporary structuring of gender and childhood relations: This session draws on gender and cultural critiques of developmental psychology to address current configurations of the child-woman
relationship within contemporary cultural-geopolitical contexts, also warning of the dangers of eliding feminism and feminization.

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 15th November, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 14: Discussion of Participant Paper abstracts

Prof. Gurukkal will be discussing the abstracts of course papers.

We hope to discuss the abstracts submitted hitherto. Those who have not submitted abstracts yet are also invited to bring in their abstracts during the session itself, so that these too can be discussed.

Day, Date & Time:  Thursday, 13th November, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 13: Stones from Greece: Settlements, Temples and Statues

by

Prof. Dr. Luca Giuliani, 
Rector, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin , Germany

Luca Giuliani studied Greek and Roman archaeology, social anthropology and  Italian literature in Basel and Munich. He received his PhD in Basel in 1975. From 1982 to 1992 he was a curator at the Berliner Antikensammlung.  Between 1992 and 1998 he was Professor of Greek and Roman archaeology at the University of Freiburg and from 1998 to 2007 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Munich. Since April 2007 he has been the Director of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study) and Professor at the Humboldt-University in Berlin.

ABSTRACT  
What kind of knowledge is generated by archeology, a historical discipline that is focused not on texts, but on speechless artefacts? I will mainly pay attention to stones, concentrating on three different phaenomena: on settlements (and democracy), on temples (and precision), on archaic sculpture (and evolution).

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 8th November, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents a Public Lecture on

Table manners in greek vase painting: What is wrong with a hero behaving like a cannibal?

Prof. Dr. Luca Giuliani
Rector, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, Germany

Date & Time: Tuesday, 4th November 2008, 4.00 p.m

Luca Giuliani studied Greek and Roman archaeology, social anthropology and Italian literature in Basel and Munich. He received his PhD in Basel in 1975. From 1982 to 1992 he was a curator at the Berliner Antikensammlung. Between 1992 and 1998 he was Professor of Greek and Roman archaeology at the University of Freiburg and from 1998 to 2007 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Munich. Since April 2007 he has been the Director of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study) and Professor at the Humboldt-University in Berlin.

Abstract

Ancient greek myths were more than a pastime: they were, as a famous anthropologist once said, good to think with, mirroring very basic (and sometimes unsolvable) problems of society. Greek vases that were used at drinking parties often depict scenes from myth; but the images do not simply repeat the stories as we know them from poetry: in the visual medium the tales can acquire new meanings and a disturbing quality that goes beyond what is expressed in words.

Session 12: At the Service of Justice - A view on Science and its changing relationship with Law and Justice

by
Kakarala Sitharamam
Director, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore

At the Service of Justice: The focus on the relationship between science and justice is not new, though it was primarily done from the vantage point of instrumentality, of ‘serving the cause of justice’. This was especially so in the case of Criminal Justice, where the development of forensic science, and developments in bio- and medical technologies is always seen as instrumentalities of justice. While this trend continues even today, recent research, both in Science Technology Studies (STS) as well as Law and Human Rights, has begun to highlight deeper concerns about the impact of scientific advancements on the human subject and subjectivity. This discussion aims to present some key issues in both the debates as a way of beginning a conversation on the changing relationship between science and justice.

Suggested readings

1. UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Biomedical Ethics and Human Rights, 2006.
   
   
2. Katherine Hayles, Liberal Subjectivity Imperilled: Norbert Wiener and Cybernetic Anxiety, from How We Became Posthuman : Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (1999).
   
   
3. Scott Lash, Technological Forms of Life, Theory, Culture and Society 18(1), 2001.
   
   
4. Sheila Jasanoff, Ordering Life: Law and the Normalisation of Biotechnology, 2000.
   
   
5. Marcy Darnovsky, Human Rights in a Post-Human Future, in Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age, edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Peter Shorett (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005)

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 25th October, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents Talk on

"INDIAN HERMENEUTICS"

Dr. C. Rajendran
Professor, Department of Sanskrit, Calicut University, Kerala

Date & Time: Friday, 24th October 2008, 4.00 p.m

Synopsis

Hermeneutics as the science of interpretation of texts, is also the logic and semantics of meta-questions about the kinds of text, their constitutive purposes, modes of  interpretation connoting the life beyond the text and issues of complex communications, in the Indian tradition. Knowledge systems themselves become an object of scholarly enquiry within Indian hermeneutics. The lecture highlights the significance of Sanskritic paradigms for understanding meaning across cultures.

Session 11: Reflections on Postcolonial Knowledge Production

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

Reflections on Postcolonial Knowledge Production: This session seeks to review questions raised in the preceding session, taking into account various decolonising initiatives on knowledge production taken up in the postcolonial exercise in particular.

Suggested readings

1. Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 2002. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. New York, Routledge. Introduction.

2. Tiffin & Lawson, 1994. De-scribing Empire: Post-colonialism and Textuality. New York, Routledge. Chapter 1.

3. Gayatri Spivak, 1999. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. London, Harvard University Press. Introduction.

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 18th October, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 10: Decolonising Knowledge Production

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

Decolonising Knowledge Production: This session seeks to review demands for decolonising knowledge production, the intellectual responses to them, and entailing epistemological results.

Suggested readings

1. Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 2002. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. New York, Routledge. Introduction.

2. Tiffin & Lawson, 1994. De-scribing Empire: Post-colonialism and Textuality. New York, Routledge. Chapter 1.

3. Gayatri Spivak, 1999. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. London, Harvard University Press. Introduction.

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 11th October, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 9:Knowledge Production beyond the Limits of Modernity

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

Knowledge Production beyond the Limits of Modernity: This session seeks to survey the historical and epistemological shift of knowledge production from context-free general laws to context-specific local particulars.

Suggested readings

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 4th October, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 8: Epistemological contrasts between science and social science

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

Epistemological contrasts between science and social science: This session will provide a historical perspective on the construction of epistemological contrasts between science and social science.

Suggested readings

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 27th September, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 7: The Constitution of the Social Science

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

This session seeks to explore the intellectual efforts and historical process of separating societal knowledge from philosophy that help to bring it under the rubric of 'science.'

Suggested readings

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 20th September, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 6: From science to social science

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

This session will conduct an overview of the way science influenced the non-sciences and structured their epistemology.

Suggested readings

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 13th September, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Session 5: The Structure of Knowledge Systems of Traditional India

by
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

The Structure of Knowledge Systems of Traditional India: This session will undertake a discussion of the structure and composition of the knowledge systems of traditional India.

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 6th September, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

Centre for Contemporary Studies

Presents Harun Farockis Film on

Images of the world & Inscriptions of War

Dr. Vasanthi Dass
Visiting Faculty, Srishti college for Visual Art and Design Technology, Bangalore

Date & Time: Thursday, 4th September 2008, 4.00 p.m

Synopsis

Farocki uses the camera to excavate the politics of enlightenment from the very foundation of science, technology, industrialization and other related aspects such as colonization, and imperialism. The film has two centers of gravity. One is a photograph of a woman in Auschwitzand the other is American aerial photography of the concentration camp. The two focal points are embedded in a series of far-reaching, surprisingly integrated reflections on the interrelationship of measurements and photographic production. Although the pictures are often static, Farocki’s exacting eye and his commentary give them a restless, imaginary movement.

Session 4: Thomas Kuhn a different approach to philosophies of science? And what about other traditions?

by
Asha Achuthan
Research scholar, CSCS
and
Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS

Thomas Kuhn a different approach to philosophies of science?

This session will attempt to highlight some debates in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science that were quilted by the famous work on scientific revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Through a close examination of his trajectories, we will generally examine his position on, and in, the function of science, and its role vis-à-vis reality, as also re-examine the understanding of his contributions to histories and sociologies of science.
The second part of the session will introduce a juxtaposition of the questions raised by Kuhn and others with the structure of knowledge in Indian traditions, prefatory to taking up these questions in greater detail in following sessions.

Further suggested readings

• Mulkay, M. Science and the Sociology of Knowledge. 1985:1-26.

• Callon M. "Four Models for the Dynamics of Science", in Jasanoff et al. (eds.) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. 1995:29-63.

• Latour, B. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Harvard University Press, 1987.

• John P. van Gigch, "Comparing the Epistemologies of Scientific Disciplines in Two Distinct Domains: Modern Physics versus Social Sciences", I & II, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 19 Series, 465 & 466. 2002. pp.199-209 & 551-562. respectively

• Collins, H.M. Changing order: Replication and induction in scientific practice. London: Sage. 1985

• Gilbert, G. N. & Mulkay, M. Opening Pandora's box: A sociological analysis of scientists' discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1984

• Pickering, A. Constructing Quarks: A sociological history of particle physics. Chicago; University of Chicago Press. 1984

• Latour, B. & Woolgar, S. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. 2nd Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1986

• Feyerabend, P. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge London, 1975

• Lakatos, I. Proofs and Refutations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976

• Feyerabend, P. For and Against Method: Including Lakatos's Lectures on Scientific Method and the Lakatos-Feyerabend Correspondence with Imre Lakatos, London, 1999.

• Kuhn, T.S. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
  

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 30th August, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

The Structure of Scientific Knowledge - This session will look at science as a form of organization of knowledge in terms of structure and composition.

This and the following two sessions will draw on the following readings –

• Mulkay, M. Science and the Sociology of Knowledge. 1985:1-26.

• Callon M. "Four Models for the Dynamics of Science", in Jasanoff et al. (eds.) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. 1995:29-63.

• Latour, B. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Harvard University Press, 1987.

• John P. van Gigch, “Comparing the Epistemologies of Scientific Disciplines in Two Distinct Domains: Modern Physics versus Social Sciences”, I & II, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 19 Series, 465 & 466. 2002. pp.199-209 & 551-562. respectively

• Collins, H.M. Changing order: Replication and induction in scientific practice. London: Sage. 1985

• Gilbert, G. N. & Mulkay, M. Opening Pandora’s box: A sociological analysis of scientists’ discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1984

• Pickering, A. Constructing Quarks: A sociological history of particle physics. Chicago; University of Chicago Press. 1984

• Latour, B. & Woolgar, S. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. 2nd Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1986

• Feyerabend, P. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge London, 1975

• Lakatos, I. Proofs and Refutations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976

• Feyerabend, P. For and Against Method: Including Lakatos's Lectures on Scientific Method and the Lakatos-Feyerabend Correspondence with Imre Lakatos, London, 1999.

• Kuhn, T. S. The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.

• Kuhn, T.S. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
  
  

Day, Date & Time:  Saturday, 23rd August, 2008, 2:00 p.m.

INAUGURATION OF THE SECOND EDITON OF THE COURSE ON

Production of Knowledge in the Natural and Social Sciences

Co-hosted by
Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc, Bangalore
&
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

on Saturday, 9th August 2008, 2:00 p.m.

PROGRAMME

Introduction and Welcome : Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar and Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana

Address and Inauguration: Prof. U. R. Ananthamurthy and Prof. Obaid Siddiqi

Vote of Thanks: Dr. Asha Achuthan

Tea/Coffee and Snacks (at about 3.00 p.m.)

Followed by the First Lecture of the Course:

by

Prof. Rajan Gurukkal
Sundararajan Visiting Professor, CCS  

by

Prof. K.P. Mohanan

Department of English Language and Literature,
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract:

Broadly speaking, ‘methodology’ is ways of looking for an answer to a research question so as to arrive at a conclusion. Justification is convincing the research community that the answer/conclusion should be accepted. In my talk, I will present a framework for understanding the methodological and justificationary core and differences across academic domains, with elaboration of the following points:

• In evidence-gathering methodologies that investigate causal or correlational hypotheses (e.g., experiments, surveys, structured interviews), justification involves adherence to standard methodological protocols. In other evidence-gathering methodologies (e.g., textual analysis, ethnography) and in contemplative methodologies that investigate theories and interpretations (in mathematics, the natural the social sciences, and the humanities), justification calls for an extended chain of reasoning called argument.
  

• Arguments in mathematics (called proofs) employ non-defeasible reasoning; those in theoretical science and in theories/interpretations in the humanities employ defeasible reasoning.
  
  

Lecture on "History of Kerala Christianity on the basis of newly found documents - methodological challenges and possible answers"

by

Prof. Istvan Perczel

Research Associate, Oriental Institute, Tübingen &
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Hungary

Abstract:

My team and I have been collecting, photographing and cataloguing thousands of hitherto unknown local documents, written in Classical Syriac, Malayalam, Latin, Portuguese and English, on paper, palm leaves, copper plates, wooden timbers or rock slabs, relevant to the early modern and modern history of the indigenous Indian Christian community, commonly called St Thomas Christians, or Syrian Christians. These documents tell us a new story about the history of this community before and after the arrival of the European colonisers. They testify to an incredible openness of this part of India, not only of the Western Coast toward the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe, but also of the different religious communities toward each other. The documents permit us to see how the arrival of the subsequent waves of European colonisers, all motivated by their commercial interests and ideological background - acted on the existing equilibrium of the multicultural Kerala setting. Moreover, given the traditional - commercial and ecclesiastic - links of the Kerala Christian communities to the Middle East, one can also see what kind of response this intrusion triggered on the part of the Indian Christians' traditional Middle Eastern partners. This side of the story has remained to the greater part unknown until now, as the only evidence in use by both Western and Indian historians were those kept in Western archives. The main novelty of our approach consists in shifting the evidence to India and to consider what has been created and kept here.

108.

Lecture on "An Exposition on Open Society - Concepts, Evaluation, Implications for democracy & free markets"

by

Mr. Rashesh Shah

Founder and Chairman
Edelweiss group of Companies

18th July 2008, Friday, 4:00 p.m., 

New CCS Premises (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

Lecture on "Library Services, Networks and Open Access: The Example of the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin"

by

Gesine Bottomley, MLS

Library Director
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin

17th June 2008, Tuesday, 4:00 p.m.,
New CCS Premises (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

Lecture on "Science and Language"

by

Prof. Sundar Sarukkai
Professor and Dean
School of Humanities
Head, Centre for Philosophy
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore 560012

5 June 2008, Thursday, 4:00 p.m.,
New CCS Premises, (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW VENUE

Abstract:

Science has an intriguing relationship with language. If the primary task of science is to describe the world as it really is then it needs language to do the job. However, the very idea of a real objective world is that it is believed to be independent of language. This paradox lies at the heart of how science engages with language. It influences how science chooses a special form of writing. It explains why science is suspicious of natural languages (like English) and why mathematics is so essential to science. However, the irony is this: science is one activity that most creatively engages with language to the extent that writing itself becomes part of scientific methodology. This talk will illustrate this creative engagement between science and language.

The Centre for Contemporary Studies in association with mukhosh, IISc

invites you to a panel discussion on
GLOBALISATION AND THE INDIAN REGIONAL THEATRE - A CAMOUFLAGED THREAT?

Panelists:

Prof. Samik Bandyopadhyay (Vice-Chairman, National School of Drama, New Delhi; Editor, Thema, Kolkata)

Ms. Sohag Sen (Theatre person, Kolkata)

Mr. K. V. Akshara (Director, Nianasam, Heggodu)

Mr. Jagdish Raja (Theatre person, Bangalore)

Moderator: Mr. Ranjon Ghoshal (Theatre person, Bangalore and Kolkata)

The panel discussion is the inaugural event of the three-day Bangla theatre, MOITREE, organised by mukhOsh.

Entry to the panel discussion is free

23 May 2008, Friday, 11:00 a.m. at The platform, Ranga Shankara,
36/2 8th Cross, II Phase J P Nagar, Bangalore 560 078

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN VENUE

104.

Lecture on "Crisis in Theatre"

by

Prof. Samik Bandyopadhyay
Editor, Thema, Kolkata
Vice-Chairman, National School of Drama, New Delhi

22, May 2008, Thursday, 4:00 p.m., New CCS Premises, (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW VENUE

103.

Centre for Contemporary Studies in association with the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society

Presents a talk on: "Cinema: The Logic of the Prosthetic"

by

Prof. V. Sanil
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

11 April 2008, Friday, 11 a.m. at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, 466, 9th Cross Madhavan Park, 1st Block Jayanagar, Bangalore – 560011

PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE

About the Speaker

Sanil is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. He teaches courses on Art and Technology, Ethics and Engineering, Digital Aesthetics, Phenomenology- Hermeneutics-Deconstruction, and Film and Philosophy. His recent publications include: The Diagram of Vastu Purusha: From Meaning to Measurement, On Hating One's Own Children Technology of the Real, Time Passing: Kant Goes to Movies, The Form of Truth and the Power of the False: Nietzschean Moment in Cinema, Mathematical Idea and Cinematic Image, The Mirror and the Mask: On the Technology of Philosophical Machines, Happy Positivism and Its Melancholic Critics, Recollection and Knowledge in Plato, Why Eyes are not Enough: French Thought and the Lure of the Visible.

103.

Lecture on: "Art and Technology"

by

Prof. V. Sanil
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

10 April 2008, Thursday, 4:00 p.m., New CCS Premises, (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW VENUE

Abstract

It might seem that no two domains of human activity could be so far apart as art and technology. Technology is often seen as application of science to meet human needs. Aesthetic judgement is expected to be disinterested and free of any concern for purpose and utility. Technology, it is believed , establishes a manipulative relationship with outer nature whereas art preserves a free relationship with the inner nature. This talk will critically examine this dichotomy between science and technology on one side and art on the other.

102.

Centre for Contemporary Studies in association with the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Scinece

Presents a

Lecture on: "Central nodes in ecological networks: a quantitative approach to keystone species?"

by:

Dr. Ferenc Jordan
Research Professor
Animal Ecology Research Group
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungary

&
Currently supported by Society in Science: the Branco Weiss Fellowship, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland

12 March, 2008, Wednesday, 4:00 p.m., Seminar Hall, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

101.

Lecture on: "Forest Carabids and Freeway Design: Reconciling Nature with Society in the Bereg Plain, Hungary"

by:

Dr. Ferenc Jordan
Research Professor,
Animal Ecology Research Group
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungary

&
Currently supported by Society in Science: the Branco Weiss Fellowship, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland

11 March, 2008, Tuesday, 4:00 p.m., Choksi Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

100.

Presents a Film on:

Some Alien Creatures
(Duration: 75 min)

by
the well-known ethnographic filmmaker

David MacDougall
Professorial Fellow
Centre for Cross-Cultural Research
Australian National University
Canberra, AUSTRALIA

18 February 2008, Monday, 6:00 p.m., Seminar Hall, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

SYNOPSIS

The film "Some Alien Creatures" is a carefully observed and richly nuanced film about a progressive co-educational boarding school in South India namely 'The Rishi Valley School' in Andhra Pradesh. The young boys and girls jokingly accuse each other of being like "alien creatures." In exploring this gender divide, renowned ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall examines the lives of three boys at the school. The engaging portraits that emerge reveal the thoughts and resourcefulness of the boys as well as their problems, dreams, and daily activities.

Like MacDougall's earlier five-part series on India's Doon School, "Some Alien Creatures" is a compelling and insightful cultural portrait and an essential work of ethnographic cinema.

99.

Centre for Contemporary studies in association with St. Joseph's College (Autonomous), Bangalore

Presents a Public Lecture on : “Stigma and Narrative in Thomas Mann's Works"

by
Prof.Dr.Heinrich Detering
Director
German Department & Centre for Comparative Literature,
University of Gottingen, Germany

30 January 2008, Wednesday, 3:15 p.m., Xavier Hall, St Joseph’s College Post Graduate and Research Centre Langford Road, Bangalore

98.

Centre for Contemporary Studies in association with the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Scinece

Presents a Lecture on : "Ecology and literature: Concepts of literary "Eco Criticism""

by
Prof.Dr.Heinrich Detering
Director
German Department & Centre for Comparative Literature,
University of Gottingen, Germany

29 January 2008, Tuesday 2:30 p.m., Seminar Hall, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012

97.

Lecture on
"Understanding Bob Dylan's Song Poetry: "Visions of Johanna" as an Example".

by
Prof.Dr.Heinrich Detering
Director
German Department & Centre for Comparative Literature,
University of Gottingen, Germany

28 January 2008, Monday, 4:00 p.m., Choksi Hall, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012